Janet’s Blog

Can you remember the first time you saw a smiley?

By that I mean the symbol which is made from a colon a dash and a close bracket sign.

It might have been an e-mail, it might have been a text message, it might have been written text or you may be one of the people in the world who have still never received a smiley in a communication.

I think I suppose I probably got my first smiley on an e-mail in 1989, twenty years ago, but they are older than that.

The smiley is now technically and emoticon, and with super new e-mail programs you can get animated smilies that can bounce laugh cry go red or any manner of things. But back in 1982 when the first university based computer message boards were being used the smiley had a simple purpose.

On 19^th September 1982 Scott Fahlman proposed the use of the smiley to show that a message had been posted in jest, and also the ‘sad smiley’ with the bracket the other way round was a sign of seriousness.

Thus was a whole new world of emoticons born.

All three of today’s passages are about communication, how God communicates to us, how we communicate to God and each other.

We know that a lot of communication is not about words. It’s about other things.  The Psalm begins The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2.Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.

3.There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

4.Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

And most of us don’t go, don’t be silly the skies don’t speak, they can’t use words.

Instead we go, yes that’s right. Some people might even be humming a little bit of Haydn in their head. The heavens are telling the glory of God, the Universe declares his marvellous handiwork.

We understand, we understand that the communication is about more than the tight constructs of language. We can’t tie God down with human language. The Quakers of course take this to the extreme in their services, they say it is so important we don’t try to tie God down with our language that they don’t have any words in their services.

We don’t do that, but we need to be mindful that we never let us think that the words are enough or all we have, how does God communicate himself to us, not just with words with everything in all creation.

There’s a pop song I  like called more than words, West life covered it but it was actually written by a band called extreme. The video is great. Only two members of a four person group perform the song and so in the video the other two are shown sitting with their feet up looking at a magazine each. The song is about being in love about being to do with actions as well as words,

More than words is all I ever needed you to show

Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me

Cos I’d already know

 

Even the heavens speak of God’s greatness…but what is it that we speak of?

James gives us a salutary warning of what it is that actually humans speak?

“Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”

I wonder what it is that you most ever regret saying?

I guess for each one of us that it is something of which we are so ashamed that we would never actually want to share it. We might not really ever want to think about it.

James warns us, and we should be more like the heavens and less like poor humans. We should be focussing on proclaiming the goodness of God and less on cursing.

This is hard if you are either naturally, or through circumstance a grumpy person…

But it is important.

It is important that our words and our actions tie up, last weeks passage from James, there is no point in sending someone a horrible message and sending a smiley after it, that just doesn’t add up. It is not consistent, it is not authentic, what is it that we communicate to others about God and what being a Christian is like.

So who is communicating what in the gospel passage?

Jesus says ‘what’s the gossip?’

What has been communicated by my actions, are they speaking louder than the words, are they more than words.

 

Jesus is important.

Jesus is good.

Jesus is from God.

Peter gets it.

Jesus is the Christ.

Hooray for Peter, Peter has understood.

But not everything.

Jesus says don’t be ashamed of me and my words.

Don’t be ashamed of me and my words.

My words again. Words useful, but not enough.

Work at UCLA has shown that when you give a talk only 7% of what you communicate is actually the words. The rest is to do with your voice and the way you use your body.

Jesus is talking about his death and resurrection, he is telling them about what is going to happen. Jesus knows that the ultimate path to this communication is via suffering.

So today, we recognise the heavens speak of God’s glory, but not with words. We should speak of God’s glory with words, but often don’t, and Jesus, well Jesus came to tell us how God loves us.

When we take communion the technical word for what we are doing is communicating. We communicate with God, but not with words.

 

 

More than words is all I ever needed you to show

Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me

Cos I’d already know

 

For Christmas this year Sainsbury’s have a few suggestions for the man in your life.

An iDect telephone. A Canon camera, a Nintendo Wii, An assortment of glasses from which to drink, and a George foreman healthy eating grill.

I can say that my husband will be receiving none of the above, although we did buy the first bit of his Christmas present on Thursday afternoon!

I wonder what is on your Christmas list?

What is it that you want.

It is a cliché that when you ask a beauty paegant contestant what she wants that she will say world peace?

So what is there on our Christmas list somewhere between world peace and a pair of really nice thermal socks for keeping feet warm even in the coldest church buildings.

There are of course presents that we quite like, or quite fancy the sound of what will lie languishing at the back of a cupboard or drawer, only to be brought out when the person who gave them to us comes around to visit.

Because it’s not just what we get which is important, but what we are going to do with it. Many of us who have indulged in the cost of a gym subscription know to our cost that the money will leave the bank account but that what is really important is the going to the gym.

Bartimaeus was a man who knew what he wanted.

Bartimaeus is a curious character who is described in an interesting way. Most of the people who Jesus’ heals are not named, but here is Bartimaeus, but he is named as somebody’s son. He is only somebody’s son, Timaeus’ boy. Presumably he had some other name, but he was know as Timaeus’ boy. Not just that of course he was known as Blind Bartimaeus. Timaeus’ blind boy. That’s who he was, just Timaeus’  blind boy.

John Ayers speaks about this, for years he was Mr Ayers, the Revd Ayers, now of course he is Canon Ayers, John jokes that the next  accolade will be poor old. ‘Poor old Canon Ayers’.

So back to the outskirts of Jericho, Timaeus’ blind boy is sitting begging on the roadside. But Timaeus’ blind boy can see something which others are just beginning to get the hang of and it will be a while yet before the others fully understand the implications of anyway. The Son of Timaeus sits at the roadside shouting, Son of David, have mercy on me!

For Jesus to be acclaimed as the Son of David is hugely important, however feminists may feel about David’s appalling behaviour towards Bathsheba David is held up as the example of great Kingship. The moment when Israel lives as rulers of a huge part of the near east, a king who sought God, and whom God blessed, a special king. To be the Son of David is a position from which one can be merciful and Bartimaeus knows that he needs mercy.

Jesus asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Batimaeus doesn’t want world peace, a new cloak, or a nice new full wineskin.

Bartimaues knows what he needs.

“Rabbi I want to see”

Bartimeaus was wanting his sight, in the old fashioned puritan sense of the word he was wanting his sight, he was lacking his sight and that’s what he wanted. He knew, he believed that Jesus, Son of David could give it to him and so he asked for it.

What did he do when his sight was restored.

The words are quite simple, quite easy in that it just says, Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

This is not as simple as it may first appear, the road is an interesting road. Remember this story is set on the outskirts of Jericho. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, in fact he will soon arrive to be greeted as a superhero, at least at first.

But the road between Jericho and Jerusalem is not an easy one. It’s about 15 miles and it rises 3 and a half thousand feet in that distance, it can be hot and rocky and is not an easy road.

We know that it is not an easy road because when Jesus wants an example of a difficult road this is the one he chooses as the setting for the story of the good Samaritan. This is a harsh, and difficult road, renowned for its robbers and general unkindness to travellers.  The traveller in the story of the good Samaritan travels down the hill, but Jesus is about to travel up, to tackle the climb. This is no road for a blind man.

But Bartimaeus isn’t blind any more, he receives his sight, and follows Jesus along this hard and difficult road.

If Jesus appeared now and said to us, “What do you want me to do for you?” what would we say?

We could ask for world peace,

 We could ask for an extra hour in bed every night.

We could to win the lottery and never have to work again or ever worry about money.

Or we could ask for what it is that we need. The thing which we need which would most help us be able to follow Jesus along the road.

 

Father, hear the prayer we offer:

not for ease that prayer shall be,

but for strength, that we may ever

live our lives courageously.

 

Not for ever in green pastures

do we ask our way to be ;

but the steep and rugged pathway

may we tread rejoicingly.

 

Not forever by still waters

would we idly rest and stay;

but would smite the living fountains

from the rocks along our way.

 

Be our strength in hours of weakness,

in our wanderings be our Guide;

through endeavour, failure, danger,

Saviour, be thou at our side.

So in the doctors surgery on 25th September I was asked why I hadn’t updated my Blog…

Here are my reasons

During August I was on holiday (yes more or less the whole month),

Then I preached once in September and got a bit behind, then I got ill,

Ill is an interesting word, the weekend of 26th/27th September I battled on, conducted a wedding, and managed to remain upright during the communion service which Alice led most of and Phil preached for.

Then on the Monday I was summoned back to the doctors who had some results of a blood test and were worried that I might have a pulomonary embolism and admitted me to hopsital. 24 hours later and one X-ray and one Q-test done they decided I didn’t have a PE but I was still sick, not having been helped by having an almost entirley sleepless night in hospital.

Then I was still poorly for quite a long time…one of my friends who is a doctor thinks I probably had swine flu, but they didn’t test me for it in hospital so we will probably never know.

Now I am back in action so I shall post some sermons, I’m very sorry, I will try to do better…